Day 4 (Thursday) – Matthew 5:43-48
Today’s Passage
Read the passage – Matthew 5:43-48
One of the most radical, counter-cultural ideas of the Bible is to love your enemies.
- When we think of those who oppose the gospel or who oppose Christian values, who comes to mind?
- Why must we go further in loving others than just loving our family and friends?
Prayer
- Strengthen my trust in You so that I can inspire faith in others.
- Praise God for His love and ask that He would enable you to have a greater love for others.
- Loving our enemies can begin in prayer. Pray for those in our area from other faiths—ask that they would begin to understand God’s love.
Go Deeper
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, Second edition. (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 307–308.
The first thing, of necessity, is that our treatment of others must never depend upon what they are, or upon what they do to us. It must be entirely controlled and governed by our view of them and of their condition. Clearly that is the principle which Jesus enunciates. There are people who are evil, foul, and unjust; nevertheless, God sends rain upon them and causes the sun to shine upon them. Their crops are fructified like the crops of the good man; they have certain benefits in life and experience what is called ‘common grace’.
What moved God to act in love? Was it something loving, or lovely, or lovable in us or in the world? Nothing whatsoever. It was entirely and altogether in spite of us. What moved God was His own eternal heart of love unmoved by anything outside itself.
This is a tremendously important principle, because according to our Lord that is the kind of love that we are to have, and the love that we are to manifest with respect to others. The whole secret of living this kind of life is that man should be utterly detached—not governed by what others do but by the love of God within him.
The Christian is a man who is taken out of this present evil world. He is placed in a position apart and lives on a higher level. He belongs to a different kingdom. He is a new man, a new creature, a new creation. Because of that, he sees everything differently and therefore reacts in a different manner.
Songs for Worship and Reflection
